Twitter Hires YouTube Executive in Video Push

Twitter hired YouTube executive Baljeet Singh to help the micro-blogging service produce more video and sell ads alongside.

Singh started on Monday as Twitter’s product director, head of TV and video, reporting to Kevin Weil, vice president of product for revenue, according to company spokesman Will Stickney.

At Google 's YouTube unit, Singh helped develop ads that appear before videos, and that viewers can skip. The ads, called TrueView, are popular with advertisers because they only pay if viewers choose to watch.

At Twitter, Singh will help generate more video content, make it easier for users to find and watch videos and sell more ads tied to these clips. Stickney said that Twitter might someday adopt pre-roll ads similar to YouTube’s, but declined to comment further.

Many big Internet companies, including Google, Facebook and Twitter, are trying to expand in online video to attract big brands that traditionally spend heavily on TV ads. As more people watch video online, some of that spending is expected to shift from traditional TV to the web.

Singh will also work with Glenn Brown, who runs Twitter Amplify, an advertising program where programmers post short video replays on Twitter in near-real time, sponsored by a brand. The programmer and Twitter each get a cut of the ad proceeds.

One of the latest Amplify partnerships is with the PGA Tour, organizer of most of the top golf tournaments in the U.S. Last week, at the WCG tournament, the PGA distributed an Amplify tweet sponsored by logistics company FedEx.